


Rattlesnake Roundup

by habenaria_radiata



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon-Typical Violence, Established Relationship, M/M, One Shot, Post-Triangulum Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 08:03:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12502700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/habenaria_radiata/pseuds/habenaria_radiata
Summary: After some considerable work spent branching JP's into an international organization, Yamato receives a rather fascinating report from deep in the Heart of Texas.Victims are found wandering in a daze, lost, injured, and with their pockets literally turned inside out. He and Hibiki take it upon themselves to investigate.





	Rattlesnake Roundup

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Katraa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katraa/gifts).



> The lovely Katraa wrote me an incredibly sweet get-together fic for Hibiki and Yamato. She also writes an amazing Post-Triangulum Arc fic where Yamato and Hibiki fight demons together as partners, so I was inspired to write one of their possible adventures!
> 
> I hope you enjoy ♥

* * *

 

  
    Finding the white tent was easier than he'd anticipated. Hibiki had fretted that they'd flown here for nothing; that they would scour the wide stretches of dusty Texas countryside and find nothing at all. It did seem unlikely that they would stumble upon it after this length of time, but lo and behold -- there it was. All they'd had to do was follow the crowd.  
  
    Yamato tilted his shoulder back, deftly avoiding a passing woman without breaking his stride. The tent was exactly as the report had described: plain, hexagonal, an average, slightly dirty white, music pouring from the thick panels of fabric, and too small to fit the number of people it did. A second person brushed against him, and Yamato watched as he disappeared inside the tent.  
  
    They stopped a few feet from the entrance, dirt and gravel crunching beneath their boots. With each new person that passed through the loose flap, another burst of music swept through the air. The report had prepared him for the noise, the people, even the location, vague as it was. But the sheer size of the crowd alarmed him. That so many individuals had found this place in the miles of empty flatlands was...concerning.  
  
    Thus far, no one who had gone inside of it had come back out.  
  
    "Are you prepared?" He tilted his head, tucking his chin to his shoulder and meeting Hibiki's bright blue eyes. Hibiki dipped his head in a smooth nod.  
  
    "I am, but I always second-guess myself when you ask me that." Yamato watched his lips pull into a slick smile even as Hibiki drew his cell phone from his pocket, no doubt to double-check that he was, indeed, prepared. He continued peering over the man's shoulder and took note of the skills he'd equipped. Null Curse was his primary concern, and it was the very first passive slot listed. Satisfied, Yamato turned away from him and examined the front side of the tent once more.  
  
    There was little point in remaining out here. Yamato stepped forth, tugged the flap back, and ducked inside.  
  
    The tent stretched away from him much further than it should have. Bodies were packed inside of it, but no matter how many slipped in from outside, the tent itself never quite seemed _full_. Yamato suspected that it never would. He reached for Hibiki immediately, his fingers closing around his bicep as they navigated towards the crowd's outer ring.  
  
    Even the top reached higher than it should have. The music seemed to echo overhead, loud enough it grated at his nerves. The ground beneath their feet reverberated with the pounding of drums, and every so often, the brassy notes of trumpets cut through the air. It annoyed him, but Hibiki seemed to like it. His curly black head whipped back and forth, and he pushed closer to Yamato. "This is wild. Where is the music even coming from?"  
  
    An excellent question, really, because there was no band to play it. In fact, there was nothing inside the tent at all save the crowd and a small, empty wooden platform directly in the center. Yamato narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on Hibiki's arm. The demon must be hiding amongst the congregation. That, or it was waiting for something in particular before it showed itself. He craned his neck to look for the entrance, but they were too far in to pick it out. He could see nothing but the sea of people surrounding the makeshift stage.  
  
    "What do you think? Should we move closer? I'm sure it'll head for the stage eventually."  
  
    Yamato nodded absently and followed Hibiki deeper into the tangled mass of people. The proximity made his skin crawl. They very nearly dragged against him, and it was a wonder that no one trod on the edge of his coat. This damned demon better show up before he lost his temper.  
  
    He was still grumbling to himself when Hibiki stopped short so abruptly that Yamato almost plowed into his back. There before them appeared a woman who stepped into their path, turned her head, and stopped. Hibiki was staring at her, and she was staring back.  
  
    Slowly, her lips peeled back from her teeth into a broad grin. She nodded to them, the edge of a flat cane lifting up to tilt the brim of her homburg back. Then she turned away from them and disappeared into the crowd.  
  
    Hibiki burst into motion so quickly that Yamato almost lost him. The man broke free of his grip and followed the strange woman, leaving Yamato to shove people aside just to keep up with him. "Hibiki," he hissed, his hackles raising with a ferocity he hadn't felt in months. But he received no response. Hibiki didn't stop until he was nearly at the edge of the stage, and they watched as the woman climbed onto it.  
  
    The crowd erupted in cheers.  
  
    Yamato finally caught up enough to grip Hibiki's wrist, but his attention was quite firmly arrested. People surged around them until he nearly lost his balance. Above them, the woman tilted her head back and laughed.  
  
    Almost every inch of her was covered in white so clean it was hard to look away. Her flat, shiny shoes, her slacks, the short blazer she wore. The buttons of an oxford traced the length of her torso, a collar neatly folded around her throat. Even her hands were covered in pristine white gloves, bright as her teeth, bright as the hat perched on her head.  
  
    "How y'all doin'?" she crooned. The mob around her somehow managed to cheer all the harder, the cacophony of voices briefly drowning out the mysterious music. Yamato's nerves spiked sharply, and his free hand snaked out to grasp at Hibiki's other wrist. He did not react whatsoever.  
  
    They had come knowing that the report would be useless once they were actually inside the tent, but one piece of it was still fresh in Yamato's mind.  
  
_Subject reiterated that she did not remember anything upon entering the tent. Her only memory of the event was that she saw a pair of golden eyes._  
  
    Bright, metallic gold.  
  
    Yamato saw them too, boring into his head as the woman stared at him. He had assumed gold was simply a needlessly poetic descriptor for the color, but no. They were, indeed, gold, glinting as hard as coins. Even her hair shone bronze, the light bouncing off it as she spun atop the stage to admire the people clamoring for her attention.  
  
    "Look at _you_!" she called, both her arms extending at either side of her. In one hand, she clutched the cane Yamato had seen her use earlier. "Goodness gracious. Look at all them pearly smiles. What an honor it is, to be graced by such a devoted flock." She began to move, circling the stage and twirling the stick between her fingers. It was as white and glossy as the rest of her.  
  
    "C'mon, boys and girls. Let me hear you!" She slid to a halt right in front of them. Another surge of hysterical voices rose to meet her. She laughed again, sickly sweet, and thrust the bottom of the cane down onto the stage. Both hands curled together against the rounded top and squeezed hard.  
  
    "So sweet. The Lord's lovely little flock of lambs just lookin' for someone to listen. Ain't that right?" She paused and tilted her head back to regard them with another sharp smile. "Try sayin' that five times fast." Laughter choked the tent, seeming to burst from everyone at once, including from Hibiki. Everyone save Yamato and the woman, who stared back at one another from over the heads of her mass. Yamato's eyes narrowed into cold slits.  
  
    She looked away from him and spread her arms once more. "But no, you didn't come to me just for a giggle. You came to me because you hurt. You came because someone told you that I can make you better." In a split second she spun, her arm tugged into a sharp angle to cradle the walking stick she pointed towards someone's face. A man pushed forward, his skin pale and beading with sweat. She tutted at him with a touch of dramaticism and leaned towards him. "Daniel," she sighed, "what's got you so down, darlin'? Can't afford your tuition, can you?"  
  
    Daniel shook his head, his shoulders slumped. She made a sad noise and shook her head. "Not many of us can, my love. Elisa." She turned again, her cane spinning along the inside of her elbow until she snatched it out of the air and jabbed it towards a girl. "Havin' trouble sleepin' at night, aren't you? All them bills, huh? I get it. Even when you can snatch a little bit of shut eye, it's not very satisfying, is it? Hard to feel that way when you have nightmares of your teeth fallin' out."  
  
    One by one, she dragged the financial hardships of her 'lambs' out onto the stage with her, mourning for lost dreams and broken families and sick children. Finally, she pivoted back towards him and Hibiki and clutched at her chest. "Breaks my heart, y'know? You sweet little lambs don't deserve this pain. You're good and kind. You do what you're told. What've you done to earn this lot in life?" Again, she shook her head, her bronze hair dripping around her shoulders. Yamato noticed darker patches of brown dotting the length of it every so often.  
  
     "Nothin'," she said. "Nothin' at all."  
  
    Slowly, she leaned back on her heels and cast her cane along the curve of her circle of followers. "Why _do_ we call ourselves -- all the good ones -- lambs? Is it because lambs are so easy to love? They're docile. They're gentle. Obedient. Non-threatening." Her head tilted downwards til a shadow cast over her face, and her smile fell away. "Lambs are prey."  
  
    Yamato realized with a start that the entire room was silent except for her and that irritating music, but even as it continued at the same volume, she never had to raise her voice. He could hear her with crystal clarity.  
  
    She swept away from them, tension coiled in her legs and in her arms as she gripped at her cane. "But for every lamb of God, there exists a lion to prey on it. So who are the lions, then? Who is it at the root of my little lambs' suffering? Who is it growing fat on your meat?" Again she jerked to a rough halt and stared down at them, her golden eyes boiling as some realization seemed to grip them all at the same time. Yamato's fingers circled harder around Hibiki's wrists. He hadn't moved at all since she started to speak, his blue eyes straining to follow her every single motion.  
  
    "You know who it is," she murmured. "Who _they_ are. You know why we call 'em 'fat cats'. The lions who make your laws, your cars, your TVs. Who live above you in your skies, who pay you their table scraps while they shovel the rest into their bottomless pockets. The lions who profit on your lives, your illnesses, your miseries. Even your deaths.  
  
    "Money, brothers and sisters," she breathed. "That's how they keep you down and docile, not with teeth, but with cash. And I'll tell you a secret."  
  
    A wicked smile pulled across her entire face, so wide it looked like her jaw might come unhinged. "They're not the lions. _They_ are the lambs. They make sure you struggle, make sure you fight for every piece of happiness you can get your hands on, because they are _afraid_ of you."  
  
    Something in the crowd changed on a dime. Hibiki tensed in his arms with such sharpness, Yamato feared he would leap straight onto the stage. He was quivering against him, his breath coming harsh and shallow as he watched the woman who was watching him.  
  
    "You are the apex predators," she snarled, her voice booming through the audience. "And they want you to forget that because if you don't, you will eat them. _You_ are the lions. _You_ are the hungry snakes they can feel snapping at their heels. And they know that if they can keep you down, keep you tired, it don't matter how hungry you are."  
  
    Her chest heaved as she stood before them, her eyes open wide and gleaming. "You came to me because I can see what you really are. I see all you _can_ be. You are more than a shaking lamb waiting to be fed upon." She twirled her cane and slammed it over her shoulders to reach up and grasp her hat to tug it off. A smooth white tithe plate rested upon her head, and she plucked it away and spun it on her fingertips.  
  
    "Let me see that predator inside you," she whispered. "Shed it all like a skin. Shed your money, your worthless jewelry, your meekness, your weakness. Give me everything tying you down to this rotten existence, and I will see you _free_."  
  
    It took him too long to realize she was speaking directly to Hibiki. But Hibiki didn't. He surged forward and broke Yamato's grip on him, his shaking hands diving into his pockets. Before Yamato could stop him, he threw it all until it vanished into the plate, his wallet, his cash, their hotel key.  
  
    And then he reached for his phone.  
  
    "Hibiki, stop!" Yamato's hand closed over his wrist just before his cell phone disappeared along with the rest of it, and he yanked him back away from the demon. In a split second, chaos seized everything. Hibiki whirled on him, his face pulled into a rictus of anger and betrayal. It shocked Yamato straight to his core, but he wasn't afforded any time at all to process it. Hibiki lunged for him. His back hit the ground, dirt blooming up from beneath him as Hibiki's fingernails clawed at his wrist in an attempt to wrestle his phone away.  
  
    "You don't understand," he gasped, his voice raw and thin as paper. "Give it to me! I have to get rid of it!"  
  
    One of his hands slammed down onto Yamato's face, only narrowly avoiding putting a thumb into his eye. There was little else he could do; Yamato snapped his arm out and smashed his fist into Hibiki's temple. He dropped instantly, his body limp against Yamato's chest, his hand slack against Yamato's torn wrist where his nails had peeled several layers of skin away.  
  
    Everyone went ballistic in an attempt to reach the plate themselves. They trampled one another to get to it, hands pale and tight around wallets, necklaces, and wads of cash. Yamato flattened both feet against the ground and kicked as hard as possible, sliding away from the stampede of bodies until he hit the edge of the tent, his arms tight around Hibiki's body.  
  
    Hibiki was laid completely flat, the entire left side of his face blossoming purple. Yamato was kind of glad he wasn't awake to experience that concussion, at least, and he grimaced as he rolled over to deposit him onto the ground. He grasped at his own cell phone with his uninjured hand and cast Diarahan to prevent the brain damage that would be inevitable if he were to leave him like that.  
  
    Briefly, Yamato glanced up to see the crowd still tearing into each other. He damn sure wasn't going to leave Hibiki by himself; he'd be trampled to death in minutes. His thumb danced across the keys until Cerberus burst to life from his phone, and he jabbed a finger towards his prone partner. "Guard him," he spat. "Don't move an inch."  
  
    With Cerberus crouched protectively over Hibiki, Yamato thrust his hands to the compact dirt beneath him and climbed to his feet. The demon had disentangled herself from the violent mob before her, her shining white fingers clutched around the edge of the tithe plate. She stepped between two panels of fabric and vanished from sight, coins littering the ground behind her.  
  
    Damn it. Yamato grit his teeth and shoved Hibiki's phone into his pocket, his own still gripped between his fingers. If Hibiki still hadn't snapped out of it by the time he woke, it wouldn't be worth it to leave his phone vulnerable. Hesitation needled at him, but Yamato shoved it back and followed the woman, stepping over fallen bodies and bulldozing the others out of his path. He dove in after her and nearly stumbled as his boots hit the edge of a plush carpet spread across the floor.  
  
    The music stopped abruptly, and the woman turned to face him.  
  
    "Oh, my." The material of her shoes squeaked faintly as they dug into the red rug underfoot, her gloved fingers still pinched around the plate. "This _is_ a surprise." She jerked her arm into the air, tossing her cane up to grab it closer to the middle. Once again, she draped it across her shoulders. Her freshly freed hand lifted her hat, and she balanced the plate onto her skull before she tugged the hat back over it.  
  
    Her complete lack of fear irritated him. "Who are you?" he demanded. His phone was trained upon her smiling face, but the app had nothing of note to say. Her smile widened, curved and cold as a crescent moon.  
  
    "I think you know." She cocked her head to the side and drew her lips back around her teeth. "Hmm. Maybe you don't. You can call me..." Both her arms slung around her cane and dangled there before she dipped into a low bow, her lips pursed around an exaggerated moan. " _Mm_ mona. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."  
  
    Yamato glared at her. "What have you done to them?"  
  
    The woman straightened her spine, but her hips shucked to the side, and she laughed sweetly. "So accusatory! All I did was poke a little at what's already there. You shouldn't make fun." His face twitched mistrustfully at her words, but she only looked at him, her eyes roving across his features. Her tongue clucked with sharp disapproval. "Not really your place to judge, is it? You'd be right there in the pit with 'em, but it seems to me like you've lived a rather privileged life, haven't you?"  
  
    "Excuse me?"  
  
    She regarded him as if she already knew all there was to know about who he was. For several seconds she peered into his eyes. Then she laughed again and sighed through her nose. "You rather fascinate me. Normally I'd just eat you, but I find myself intrigued by you, Mr. Hotsuin." He stiffened, but she continued speaking before he had a chance to respond.  
  
    One of her hands waved loosely. "Folks nowadays are interesting, don't you think? They make it so easy for me to do what I do, because to them, a marketable skill is the new survival instinct. Can't eat money, can you? But you wouldn't know it just observin' your civilians in their day to day life. If you can earn, you can survive. Simple, modern people, right? You'd know all about that."  
  
    Her eyes narrowed a fraction, and Yamato's blood ran as cold as he imagined hers did. She cocked her head a little further and grinned. "Mmmmhm. It ain't their fault, really. Civilization's got no need for that sort of thing. I was tellin' the truth. You all got a predator deep inside you, but your betters have trained you not to listen to it, because they know to be scared of it."  
  
    "You said as much already," he retorted, ice very nearly bouncing from between his teeth. "Do you have a point to make?"  
  
    Rather than be offended, the woman chuckled smoothly and flicked the brim of her homburg up further. "Quite. You're a keen listener. You want details. Then I'll give you the quick 'n dirty version." She slid her fingertips along the side of her cane and whipped it away to point the handle towards his face. It was painted to look like a snake's eye.  
  
    "I suspect you're even more unique than you already think you are, Mr. Hotsuin. People come to me because _everyone_ has a relationship with money. Almost everyone has struggled with it sooner or later, whether they be poor and fightin' to put food on the table, or they're rich and wonderin' what's keepin' them from havin' more. But not you. You're a _real_ lion. All them instincts others have been trained out of, you still have primed and rarin' to go. I can see the tension coiled in you like a snake. You're just waiting for me to give you a chance, to bare my throat for you to bite into. But you should know that don't work on another snake."  
  
    " _Why_?" Yamato snarled. "Is there a purpose to any of this or not?"  
  
    Both her eyebrows lifted. "Why? Money makes your world go 'round, darlin'. Stands to reason it might stop it, too. Right?"  
  
    Almost lazily, she looped her cane with her wrist as its axis, and she dug the tip of it into the ground. "You are wasted here."  
  
    Yamato faltered, his arm falling ever so slightly loose.  
  
    "You can see that too, can't you?" she asked him, her wide mouth pulling into a frown. "Ain't no one else like you on God's green earth, I can assure you. You hail from a different era. It's a pity to see the little lambs rallying behind you. You're a lion they taught to be a sheepdog."  
  
    "Ah. I see what you're doing." Yamato bared his teeth at her and renewed his grip around the plastic of his phone. "How very transparent of you. You ought to have realized those memories are out of date. If you can see that deeply into my head, then you should understand I'm not so easily manipulated."  
  
    The demon's head canted to the side, an odd look settled over her face. "Manipulated? Oh goodness, they do got you trained good. It's really that hard for you to believe someone might agree with you, isn't it?" She shook her head and tossed her hair over her shoulder. He watched her stretch one arm and tapped the cane twice. "It's a real shame. I'd have liked to see what you can do with that potential uncaged."  
  
    Yamato heard the stir of thick fabric behind him. He dipped his head downward to see a shadow slinking towards him, pushing closer, rising up until it finally swallowed his own. The sound of a rattle filled the sudden silence. It sounded like shaking bones.  
  
    He threw himself to the side and rolled as the giant rattler lunged for him, heavy coils twisting and whispering through the dirt. It crashed into the spot he'd vacated only seconds before, its head whipping towards him, reptilian eyes sizing him up. Its mouth opened wide, and the snake came for him again.  
  
    Yamato was ready for it. His shoulders dug into the earth as he threw his legs into the air and caught its gaping maw with both feet. The thing thrashed with rage, nearly rolling him over until he planted his elbow beneath him as hard as possible. His boots squelched against fetid gums as he pushed harder and harder, holding it back with sheer, brute strength alone.  
  
    It was more intimate than he'd ever wanted to be with the inside of a rattlesnake's mouth. Gold colored venom sluiced off the points of its fangs, and he could see directly into the dark void of its windpipe. If he'd even slightly miscalculated the angle, he had no doubt he'd have a fang buried in his heel all the way up to his ankle. Yamato swallowed sharply and jerked his hips up, forcing his legs so far apart he felt the crack in his own bones.  
  
    The snake screamed and thrashed as its jaw came apart. Yamato twisted hard and threw it to the side, kicking the creature's dead weight off him and scrambling for his phone.  
  
    "Good lord, you are a _beast_ , ain't you?"  
  
    Just as his fingers closed around the case, a shiny white shoe ground his wrist into the dirt. Her other foot swung in a half circle and swept the phone right from the tips of his fingers. He lifted his head to see Mmmona staring down at him, her face impassive, but her eyes positively glittering. "Now why'd you have to go and do a thing like that? What's that the kids say these days? That wasn't very cash money of you." She thrust the head of her cane towards her snake until another series of snaps and cracks indicated its jaw was being repositioned.  
  
    Fury rippled through him. This vile serpent had enthralled an entire tent full of people, had forced him to punch his own lover in the face. Now she thought she could hold him down with nothing but her meager weight?  
  
    Yamato held her gaze for a few seconds before his second hand closed around her ankle, and he brought her collapsing down into the dirt with a savage tug.  
  
    The rattler was already regaining its bearings, head swaying, seeking him out. As much as he wanted to strangle Mmmona with his bare hands, he had only just bought himself enough time to get his phone back. He went for it, tugging forward until the cold bite of wood sunk into his neck.  
  
    Mmmona hissed into his ear, her disheveled hair spilling across his shoulders as she bore over him and yanked the remaining oxygen straight from his throat. "Alright, that's it." Her cane very nearly crushed his Adam's apple. She gripped it so hard he could see the tendons straining in her wrists, and she tugged him back further into his knees. "I ought to thank you, really," she breathed. "I needed that reminder. Your life ain't much worth if you've never had to earn it, is it?"  
  
    He was going to be surrounded by monologuers until the day he fucking died.  
  
    Yamato's arm slid up from beneath the cane, his fingers closing around it, and he yanked it forward until Mmmona lost her balance and tumbled down against his back. It was almost entertaining to note that she was only about as strong as Hibiki was, which was a low bar to clear, to say the least. He threw himself forward with his arm stretched out and groped for his cell phone as she struggled against him.  
  
    Why had he not just summoned his other damned demon first? It was such an amateur move to let his anger get the best of him. Or to let her speak. He knew better than to let a monologuer get into it.  
  
    He squeezed his eyes shut and threw his weight harder until his fingertips brushed the keys of his phone, and in that split second, all he knew was blinding pain. His eyes snapped open and met the huge, hateful eye of the rattler. Ice flooded his insides. Its fangs dug deeper inside him, one piercing his wrist and the other grinding between the epicondyle bones connecting both halves of his arm.  
  
    The rattling intensified as he watched liquid gold and blood ooze up from around its teeth. Cold venom burned through his veins.  
  
    And just like that it let him go, pulling away from his arm with a squelch of blood and meat. It turned away from him just before an enormous white body plowed into it and sent the snake tumbling.  
  
    Yamato wasted no time. He bent nearly in half and slammed backwards, the back of his skull connecting with Mmmona's face. She went sprawling to the floor, her cane clattering from her grip, and Yamato went for his phone. It slipped from the numbed tips of his fingers. He snatched it up with his left hand instead and looked up to see Hibiki rushing towards him. "Yamato! Are you okay?!"  
  
    Thank the gods. He propped himself against an empty shelf and dropped his phone in his lap to fish Hibiki's out of his pocket and slide it towards him. "Don't come any closer," he bit out. "Don't make eye contact with her!"  
  
    Hibiki understood. He always did. The man dropped to his knees to pick his bright blue phone up from the rug while Cerberus kept the rattler occupied. Yamato left him to it as he stripped his jacket off and examined the holes puncturing both ends of his forearm. It was a small mercy his arm hadn't swollen into a hideous balloon of rotting flesh. The venom geysered up from each wound and dripped to the floor as his body rejected it. Bless Hibiki for cracking Null Curse. It had saved his ass more than once.  
  
    "Yamato, look out!"  
  
    Stupidly, he turned his head and looked up to see Mmmona poised over him, her cane gripped in both hands like it was a baseball bat. She swung as hard as possible, aiming directly for his temple.  
  
    A familiar lavender mist sprang up between them. Hibiki's Purple Mirror manifested just as the cane smashed into it, and Yamato watched with a fond smirk as blood blossomed from Mmmona's head. She dropped to the carpet like a white rock.  
  
    It gave him the opportunity he needed. Yamato worked his phone with his left hand and cast another Diarahan, his face screwing into a sharp wince as tendons and muscle forcibly repaired themselves. At the very least, he now had enough blood left to function. He climbed to his feet with some effort, but he soon found Hibiki grasping at his left arm and supporting the majority of his weight.  
  
    His face looked horrible. It was still mottled dark purple and angry red where Yamato had hit him. Despite it, Hibiki seemed like his discomfort barely registered. He looked terrified as he took in the divets of flesh where Yamato was still healing, and he tightened his hold on Yamato's bicep. "Seriously, are you okay? What happened?" It figured Hibiki would be more worried about Yamato than his own injuries.  
  
    But now was not the time to play catch up. Yamato righted himself with Hibiki's support and fixed his cold eyes on the snake. It was bleeding freely from multiple lacerations where Cerberus' claws had torn through its scales.  
  
    He knew exactly what to do, no second demon required.  
  
    Yamato barked Cerberus' name and jerked his head, bidding for its return. Cerberus bounded over to him, leaving the rattlesnake to follow with another enraged hiss boiling from its mouth. It slithered right towards them, and Yamato jabbed his thumb into the keys. Ice exploded up from beneath its body as Bufudyne made impact.  
  
    The snake fell, its massive body shuddering in its death throes. Then it went still.  
  
    Yamato shook Hibiki's hands from his arm and turned, stalking towards Mmmona. Her gloved fingers had almost circled her fallen cane. He kicked it away and stared at her as she rolled over with a sigh. "Infuriating, isn't it?"  
  
    She laughed then, at least until the dirt-caked sole of his boot descended over her throat. "Quite," she croaked.  
  
    His good hand slid into his pocket and produced a small leather pouch that he hooked open with the tip of his index finger. He didn't deign to speak, but apparently a boot to the throat wasn't enough to dissuade her. Mmmona peeled her lips back to bare two thin, curved fangs of her own.  
  
    "You're not really content with this, are you?" she asked, swallowing against rubber and pushing her hands against it as if she thought she could push him off. She could not.  
  
    "I am, actually."  
  
    Her arms fell flat on either side of her as she sighed. "Didn't used to be. What changed your mind so thoroughly? You're better than this. You deserve more than this."  
  
    Yamato decided to humor her and leaned forward with his hands still pushed into his pockets. "And what would you have me be? How would you see me fulfill your 'potential'? A demon? I've eradicated a lot of demons. You'll have to do better than that."  
  
    "I've eaten a lot of humans." Her eyes flashed and sparked in the light of the tent, and she grinned at him again. "Not a demon. A _god_."  
  
    He snorted at her and leaned back once more. "Been there, done that. I wasn't impressed."  
  
    Again she laughed, but it was punctuated by a wet cough. "Don't get smug, boys. You're probably the only one on this earth who could have bested me today," she said, and her eyes narrowed sharply. "No one gets that lucky a second time. Or...unlucky, in my case." After a beat, her gaze flickered over to Hibiki. Her sudden silence unnerved him a bit.  
  
    "Ahhh. _I_ see." They snapped back to Yamato's face, and her lips drew into a catty smirk. "Do gird your loins, darlin'. I suspect that if I were Asmodeus, you'd be singing a _very_ different tune right now."  
  
    Yamato stiffened again and glared at her. He yanked the vial from his pocket, opened it up, and poured the liquid into her face. In seconds her body recoiled from the ground, her spine bending as she thrashed beneath his foot. But he was ruthless, holding her down with one leg as black steam billowed from her eyesockets.  
  
    Her voice bubbled up from her throat in one final hiss before she dissolved into her shiny white clothes. The homburg tipped forward. Yamato bent down to lift it with two of his fingers, revealing the empty tithe plate. He picked it up and examined it curiously.  
  
    He flipped it over and watched as an avalanche of cash, coins, wallets, and jewelry spilled out of it.  
  
    "Oh, wow," Hibiki blurted.  
  
    "Mm."  
  
    He tossed the plate away from himself and moved for Hibiki. A sudden wave of exhaustion gripped him without mercy, and he sank down into Hibiki's arms. He felt the man's lips along his hairline. "What was that?" he asked.  
  
    Yamato glanced behind him at the empty white shoes and curled his lips. "Mammon." He dragged Hibiki down to sit beside him where they could both lean against the shelf and catch their breath. "The clean-up crew is going to have their work cut out for them."  
  
    "Yeeeah. Finding my wallet is going to be a bitch and a half," Hibiki noted with a frown. His words coaxed a laugh out of him.  
  
    While Hibiki dialed clean-up, Yamato allowed himself a moment to stare at the remains of Mammon. It disturbed him that a demon could sift through his head as easily as they breathed. Mammon seemed largely unique in that respect, but knowing that she could, it would be naive to assume that no other demon like her existed.  
  
    Had circumstances been different, he may have accepted her offer.  
  
    She'd gotten to him better than he liked.  
  
    Yamato pursed his lips into a frown and let more of his weight rest against Hibiki's arm. Then he paused and turned to eye him as he spoke. It was a waste of time to consider the circumstances, because they were not different.  
  
    In another life, perhaps he would have accepted. In another life, he may have _been_ her, his broken body stretched and bleeding across the pavement with Hibiki's foot on his neck.  
  
    But they existed in this life, and Yamato Hotsuin was not interested.  
  
    Hibiki hung up and turned to fix a confused smile towards him. "Are you okay?"  
  
    Yamato peered back at him for several seconds before he leaned forward to kiss him warmly. "Yes," he said, opening his eyes to stare at him with their lips still touching. Hibiki tilted back from him with a laugh. "Thank you, Hibiki."  
  
    His big blue eyes blinked. "For saving you? C'mon, you're the one who always tells me I don't have to thank you when you save my life."  
  
    Yamato shook his head. "No. This one is...overdue."  
  
    He sat back against the shelf and closed his eyes as they settled in to wait for their backup. They certainly weren't going to do any good for a tent full of injured, passed out strangers in the shape they were in.  
  
    Beside him, Hibiki's fingers bled pure comfort through his slacks as they dragged along Yamato's thigh. "Hey, can I ask you something?"  
  
    "Hm?"  
  
    "Who is Asmodeus?"  
  
    Yamato coughed. "Don't worry about it." Hibiki would be unbearable if Yamato admitted it was the demon of lust.


End file.
